


In defence of Tsumugi Shirogane

by str4wb3rryst4rz (emery_honeybee)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen, Ok so this isn’t exactly a fic, but I think its ok, i spent like time on it, its just a defence of tsumugi because i see too many people who hate her, please read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29041878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emery_honeybee/pseuds/str4wb3rryst4rz
Summary: This is just a little thing I wrote that is defending Tsumugi. I see a lot of people who hate her because they just don’t pay attention to a lot of what happens in the lore of v3 trial 6. Anyways I’m not sure how well-written this is but I’ve looked over it a few times to check for mistakes so hopefully its readable.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	In defence of Tsumugi Shirogane

Tsumugi Shirogane. In a fandom where many characters are very controversial, Tsumugi is often forgotten about, only being used as someone to go at the bottom of a tier list or be the butt of a joke. Most people only see her as the cheap mastermind reveal at the end of chapter six, or they reduce her character to just being Junko 2.0, even though her motives for masterminding the killing game were a lot more complex. So here is my top five reasons why Tsumugi is not as bad of a character as everyone thinks she is:

1.) A main plot point of the sixth trial is that all the characters signed up to be part of the killing game, instead of being kidnapped and forced to participate like they were in the first to trials. The killing games were consensual amongst the cast, they wanted the game to happen just as much as tsumugi did and they were all willing to die for the show they loved. While Tsumugi may have been controlling the storyline and the finer details, the cast participated in the game of their own volition. Tsumugi wasn’t the reason they died, the characters themselves were. All she did was control the behind the scenes details.

2.) Ok so the last point didn’t really count for Rantaro since, y’know, she did actually kill him. In the case of Rantaro’s death, Tsumugi basically had to kill him or she would’ve had to kill the rest of the cast because of the time limit motive. Unless someone died within the time limit them all of the characters would’ve died, meaning 15 innocent people would’ve been killed for no reason. Also, if Tsumugi hadn’t used Kaede’s plan to kill Rantaro and framed Kaede for the murder then either the cast would’ve just been a waste since the game ended so early, or they would’ve added a new mastermind and continued the game anyways. Both of these would’ve been a lot more effort for Team Danganronpa than simple framing someone who planned to kill someone but failed because of their terrible planning. 

3.) One of the things that a lot of people tend to forget about the world in which V3 takes place is that it is a lot happier than ours. People use the killing games as an outlet for their darker desires, which leads to less violent crimes overall. This is why the general public likes Danganronpa as much as they do, because it allows them to indulge in darker desires without them actually hurting people. The show Danganronpa is a way to have controlled violence that still feels real enough to satiate people’s want for murder. It is the sacrifice of a few lives to save hundreds, instead of being a tool to throw the world into despair like the killing games in THH and GD. 

4.) The outside world in the V3 universe is very different to ours. Since the real-life killing games had been going on for around 50 seasons, Tsumugi would’ve grown up with them being normal and accepted in society. This means she wouldn’t have seen the flaws of the game that we see, and wouldn’t believe it to be immoral. If any of the rest of the V3 cast, or even anyone in the outside world had been chosen to mastermind the game instead of her, they most likely would’ve acted in a similar way and had the same ignorance to the flaws of the killing game. When someone grows up around something that the entire world deems as normal, its unreasonable to expect them to uphold our moral standards when they encounter it. 

5.) At this point you might be thinking “oh well she had reasonable motives for masterminding, but she was still boring for the rest of the game.” To that I say yes, but actually no. One of the main defining traits that Tsumugi has through the majority of the game is that she calls herself “plain”, despite being an eccentric cosplayer who can get passionate about things she cares about, but is also easily manipulated. She also tends to space out frequently when she thinks about stuff, and she is not afraid to come off as rude if it will get things that are annoying her to stop. She comes off as a very simple character when you aren’t paying too much attention to her, but she also has enough of a personality that she seems like an interesting character when you look a bit deeper. All of her character was skilfully created to not stand out amongst the cast, yet not seem too suspiciously underwritten. The main thing that makes people suspicious of her when you near the end of the game is just that she hasn’t formed any close bonds with other characters, and she hasn’t had any major character development throughout the course of the game. The way that Tsumugi’s character blends in amongst the cast is just a testament to her skills at writing (even though some of the choices were questionable). 

In conclusion, I suck at writing. Ok but in all seriousness I think Tsumugi gets a really bad rep among fans (when she’s not being ignored of course). It is valid to dislike her since she did some pretty messed up stuff, but you can’t ignore the fact that she had reasons for the stuff she does. She’s not a “crazy Danganronpa fan” that was made purely to hate on the irl Danganronpa fandom. That’s just one of the many misconceptions about the V3 ending. Anyways I’ve rambled on for way too long but I hope this makes sense.

(Also I rewatched the chapter 1 trial and Kiibo didn’t have an alibi for the murder, so he could’ve technically been the mastermind and just snuck into the secret passage and killed Rantaro. Obviously he didn’t since, y’know, Tsumugi did, but he could’ve. Just a thought, I could be wrong though, I haven’t revisited the rest of v3 in a few months so I could’ve forgotten something.)

**Author's Note:**

> Oh also please let me know if I got any details wrong because I just used what I remembered of the game for these arguments so I could’ve made mistakes. Anyways thanks for reading! :D


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